Sudan, a “failed” state
By Mawut Guarak
August 15, 2008 — There has been substantial argument in recent weeks from the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) about Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Comrade Pagan Amum Okech, genuine statement that Sudan is “corrupt and failed” in all endeavors. It ought to be understood that any individual and/or party that denies this fact is fooling the Sudanese public and the whole world. There is no better term to define Sudan than the two words—corrupt and failed—used by Pagan Amum. That is why all peace-loving individuals in Sudan and across the world must applaud Amum’s wise and carefully chosen words. Sudan, in all aspects of this world is indeed a corrupt and failed state that has brought shame to Africa and the whole world in the 21st century.
Political scientists, sociologists, and public administrators define failed state as one that has the following characteristics; all of them best fit Sudan. According to their definition, a failed state precisely is, but not limited to the following:
1. A failed state is one that engages in a civil war—Needless to say, Sudan has been at war with itself for more than half a century. Although the most recent noticeable war is the Anya Nya One Movement of 1955, much of the civil strife has been in place since 1898. The war never ends; the two civil wars cost Sudan approximately 5 million lives from 1956 to 2005. More recently, the genocide in Darfur has claimed between 300,000 to 750,000 lives since 2003.
2. The second characteristic of a failed state is the “rise of criminal and political violence.” Since the creation of Sudan, Khartoum regimes have forge illegitimate reasons to arrest, torture, and kill hundreds of thousands of transformational leaders so that the few in power shall have room to steal and take advantage of the situation. This include the recent arrest of Dr. Hassan el Turabi and all Darfuris after the bombardment and assault by the Darfuri rebels on Omdurman; the same tactic was repeated in Abyei when NIF sent its Mujihadeen to cause instability in the region with intention to pull the country back to war and “dissolve” Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as once said by the NIF President Omar el Beshir.
3. The third and most observable characteristic is the rising ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural hostilities in a country. That tactic has been practice by NIF and its-like regimes for decades. Despite the clear agenda of the SPLM of “freedom, equality, and progress” for all Sudanese people, Khartoum has been twisting the war leading to the declaration of “jihad” in the early 1990s and current killings in Darfur. For its advantage, the NIF had almost successfully used the “divide and rule” tactic to kill all African Sudanese over the years. Such tactic led to the split in the Mighty SPLM/SPLA in 1991 and current armament of civilians in the South to kill each other; yet, not to leave out, the cause of unrest in Darfur is deliberately organized by the very government when it armed Janjaweed to kill Black Africans in the region.
4. Forth, and maybe the worse of all, government terrorists its own citizens. Khartoum has intensively used foreign forces to kill the very people that it claims. This practice has been in place during the South-North civil war and still exists today in the Darfur conflict. It is undeniable that Khartoum used Chinese and Russian weapons and personnel to wipe out villages in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, Ingessina, and Darfur in order to explore and mine oil and other minerals in the region. In May of this year, that is about four months ago, Khartoum hired Russian bombers with their personnel to kill civilian in Darfur (one of Russian MIG bombers was brought down in Darfur with its foreign pilot).
5. But not only that, the fifth characteristic of a failed state is that the government is incapable of feeding its own citizens leading to the food shortages and starvation. How many times have people starve in Sudan in the hands of these regimes? In fact, Khartoum uses food, among others, as a weapon.
6. Observably, a failed state is one that destroys the economy and political stability of its own. Like other failed states in Africa and around the world, Sudan spends a significant percentage of its budget on armament to kill Sudanese.
7. A failed state has no control over its international boundaries. Sudan has no official boundaries with any of the nine neighboring countries because the government is corrupt and careless for the good of the public. Sudan’s international borders are impossible to define.
8. As a failed state, Sudan has almost no infrastructure in all peripheral regions; only Khartoum and other areas are developed on the wealth of other regions.
9. Failed states do not have control over taxation. Sudan is a country with no system to collect taxes across its boundaries to develop the country. Instead, bunch of thieves and corrupt opportunists steal national tax money to develop their own residents.
10. A failed state has no single currency. For decades, Sudan has been without recognizable currency; and even after the introduction of the New Sudanese Pound two years, the use of other currencies (US dollars, Kenyan Shillings, Ugandan Shillings, Ethiopian Birr, and many others) are still circulating in Sudan. The so-called Government of National Unity (GONU) has no legitimate authority to use one currency.
11. A declining level of GDP is a major characteristic of a failed state. Although Sudan is a fast-growing economy, the government keeps dragging it to negativity.
12. A failed state has no steady health care system. Needless to say, more than 75% of the Sudanese people do not have access to health care, nearly 99% of Southern Sudan and Darfur born before 2005 have no birth certificate.
13. The thirteenth characteristic of a failed state is the rising level of infant mortality and declining life expectancy. Sudan has a life expectancy of only 48-56. Twenty five to forty percent of children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
14. A failed state is one where the government controls all the services; and declining of regular school system. Undeniably, Sudan has less education system than any other country on the planet. There was completely none in South Sudan before January 9, 2005.
15. Finally, a failed state is governed by an illegitimate and/or questionable government. Again, needless to say, Sudan government is nothing but a bunch of military juntas for only one purpose—to loot and relocate national wealth for personal use. Came to power through coup d’etat on June 30, 1989, El Beshir is a criminal with no leadership at all.
Base largely on the aforementioned practical characteristics of a “failed state,” SPLM Secretary General has every right to refer to Sudan as such. Unless the current junta changes course in Khartoum, Sudan will never change and the Sudanese people will continue to suffer.
Mawut Guarak is a graduate student currently residing in New York. He can be reached at [email protected]